Last time, I decided to fight rich people so I could get through the gym more easily.

Pidgeotto is evolving. And Eevee is evolving into a sylveon. Looks freaky. Still, I’ll keep her on my team to check out how it plays. Incidentally, kind of annoyed by this one – I assumed it was just heart based, but I maxed her out and she still wouldn’t evolve, so I looked it up and turns out it also requires one fairy type move. And eevee only learn two of those.

It sends a soothing aura from its ribbonlike feelers to calm fights. Then it beats them up while they’re out of it!

Pidgeot

When hunting, it skims the surface of water at high speed to pick off unwary prey such as Magikarp.

Right then.

I found getting to the final room a bit difficult, but otherwise this was pretty easy – there aren’t even trainers in all the rooms. There is flavor text for the decorations, though, which I really appreciated.

L35 binacle, who knows poison jab
L43 amaura who will not evolve
L31 sylveon
L36 mawile
L41 blastoise
L38 delphox

Oh, if it isn’t a young Trainer…So you’ve flown all the way through my Gym, fluttering down on me on a fortunate wind. Then I suppose you have earned yourself the right to a battle, as a reward for your efforts. I am Valerie, who leads this Fairy-type Gym. I hope your visit will prove entertaining to you. The elusive Fairy types may appear frail as a breeze and delicate as a bloom

No they’re generally hideous monsters. Seriously, I’m not entirely sure what their design policy was for this but it’s like a dog ate glitter, ribbons and pink fluff and then got sick all over the carpet. Sylveon is one of the better put together ones, and it’s still just overdesigned Kyuubey.

but they are strong.

So’s poison jab.

Ah, but she leads with a L38 mawile. Then L42 sylveon. L39 mr mime, and it’s done. Solid-eyed bug girl says, I hope the sun is shining tomorrow…

That would be reason enough to smile.

You know, maybe if all you gym leaders were less chill about losing you wouldn’t be such pushovers.

Yes, that was a fine battle. I shall reward you for this great victory. This is the Fairy Badge. It is yours now. Its beauty is captivating, is it not? … … … … … … Ah… Do forgive me. I was so captivated, I forgot for a moment that it is yours. This captivating Fairy Badge will endear any Pokemon up to Lv. 80 to you… Yes, even those Pokemon that you receive from others will obey you. I also wish to award you this TM… Please consider it a personal gift from me, not simply the winnings of a battle. And now I have dazzling gleam.

Oh? My, what a curious feeling… I can’t seem to recall any longer which move is contained in that TM.

Is this a clue about the move or is she just weird?

I hope you might forgive me. My designs are said to be rather mystifying. Do you agree with that? I’ve always wanted to be a Pokemon, you see. That desire was my inspiration and what I try to achieve by designing. And yet…the only time I feel I am truly one with Pokemon is when we are embroiled in desperate battle. I wonder why that is…

Because you have issues?

Hmm… Could it be– Never mind. It is nothing, kind Trainer.

Uh. Okay.

So I exit.

Hi, Lady S! calls some anonymous whitebox. And it’s Pinkie and Green Annoyance.
Pinkie: Hey, that’s the Fairy Badge! It’s so cute and sparkly! Music note. Always. Know what? We’re going to go tour the Poke Ball Factory! Come with us! And another one.
Green: I’m interested in Poke Balls because they’re used to catch Pokemon! No really? To put it another way, I’m utterly fascinated by them! You’re not good with English, are you kid?

And…they run off. Nice short cutscene today. I appreciate this.

I’m going to go spend my winnings!

Okay, now I have high boots, which means that I can wear the leggings without that annoying white space on Serena’s ankles. Finally, the skirts work. Let’s celebrate by switching back into her original outfit for the pokeball tour.

Incidentally, is there any meaning to how some of the clothing items are inverted to be black with white text? It seems to have something to do with expense/stylishness.

Anyway, I find that Pinkie and Green weren’t able to get in.

He’ll let us in. You’ll see! I’ll go talk to him again! Pinkie says.

Shauna! Wait! shouts Green for some reason and runs off after her!

…aaaaaaaaand now the other two just appeared.

Did Shaunee and Trevs go running off just now? What’s the deal? asks Idiot Orange.

We were supposed to meet here. Did something happen? wonders Alt-me.

And there’s a spikyboxed Eeeeek! right on cue. Pinkie runs away, followed by Greeny, followed by disgrunted Team Flare grunt – doesn’t seem to even notice us.

Huh? Hm? What’s going on? asks Idiot Orange. W-well, I guess I’ll go help them! Yes. Off with you.

Team Flare? says Alt-me. There might be something going on inside. Let’s check it out while the guard’s gone! I like the way you think, Alt-me.

Huh, inside there’s this conveyor belt that’s running into a pit of pokeballs. I’m not sure this is a proper factory setup.

I try to walk around the Team Flare grunt further in, but I hit one of those invisible path things that forces me back to in front of her. You know, I haven’t seen much of those! I remember them sort of fondly from Blue.

But it’s weird here…I mean, why not just have her notice me when I tried to sneak by?

I’ll go with Serena just refuses to avoid a fight. That’s a fine philosophy, I was just curious how far I could get.

That red suit means you’re a member of Team Flare, right? demands Alt-me, who’s just run up. Alt-me! Stop saying dumb stuff people already know! Did you have to take a part-time job at the Poke Ball Factory to pay for that ugly suit? That’s cleverer but also stop upstaging me.

Anyway, Flaregrunt is enraged at the mocking and begins battle.

Leave this to me! You go ahead! YOU WILL DIE FIRST CALEM

At least there’s another one just a little in: I’m a nameless Team Flare Grunt. I’ve yet to make a name for myself. Cute, game. And then he stays in place, blocking my progress. Less cute. It’s a fun meta thing to happen once, but when you keep doing it, you call into question the whole setup – how can I even be accomplishing things with battles if people can just do what they want even defeated?

And on another note, they’re also below the levels of the trainers in the gym, so naturally they’re pretty easily beaten. See, this is why Blue had you clear out Silph BEFORE you did Sabrina’s gym. Of course random grunts wouldn’t be as good as a gym leader.

But there’s a fun conveyor belt puzzle! …actually it turns out to be really easy, but for a minute it looked hard.

I find my way to the employee hangout.

We automated the factory to lighten the burden put on Pokemon, but… It also means there are fewer people, so the factory was taken over almost instantly.

Well, it’s good you didn’t want to take advantage of pokemon, but you could’ve just paid people salaries to do it instead. Maybe. It’s never clear on if pokemon are a real workforce or more like horses pulling carts.

Other scientist, what say you?

If Poke Balls are stolen by Team Flare, we can’t become friends with Pokemon…

1) If you can’t become friends with someone without stuffing them in a cage first, you probably were never friends.

2) Hello canon evidence of a monopoly! In my various arguments about the Pokemon/pokemon thing, I often point out that whether or not pokeball is Pokeball would, when following consistent capitalization, tell you if you’re talking about a generic item or a particular company’s project, and that, in turn, tells you a lot about the world. If the capitalization here wasn’t insane, this could’ve been foreshadowed in Pokeball’s capitalization.

And what interesting, interesting things a monopoly on pokemon friendmaking spheres says about this society! We know that stores also won’t sell to you unless you have the right badges, and yet, everything in the pokemon world revolves around the having of pokemon. He who controls the pokespice controls the pokeuniverse…possibly literally since if you have a masterball you can chuck it at God.

There seem to be heavy elements of meritocracy in this, but a controlled one, where the ones rising up are groomed to become supporters of the ruling class. We’ve got the place of rich people, where you’re awarded a noble title just based on your battling ability…and yet, most of them are actual nobility and born to it.

Anyway, back to beating people up. Another Flaregrunt tells me that yes, the plan is to have all of the pokeballs, all of them. And then none of the pokeballs will be for anyone else. None of them.

Vriska would be great as a Flare member is all I’m saying.

And hey, unique sprite people and a cutscene!

Come now. Work for Team Flare! If you’d just help out, we wouldn’t have to carry all these Poke Balls by ourselves. Man, they are whiny if that’s all they’re trying to get from him. Or, with a contribution of just 5,000,000, you could become a member of Team Flare. It’s a no-brainer! I really hope I get the chance to buy a uniform at some point.

Old guy doesn’t understand the hip and wacky kids today: What in the world are you Team Flare fools thinking?! Nothing, obviously, you were just told joining Team Flare is a no-brainer. That said, people who get their factories taken over by brainless youth shouldn’t throw stones. I’ll never forgive any group that tries to take all the Poke Balls for itself! I’m starting to wonder how you could do this. Couldn’t the factory just make more as soon as they leave? It’s sounding like pokeballs are more like a finite resource or at least have a very long manufacturing time.

Forget it, says Foresthead. Quit wasting your time with this person.
Flarehead says she agrees. There’s no one we can use here. Let’s blow this place to smithereens. You’re fun, Flarehead! And she turns to see Serena overheard that whole conversation. She accuses me of being an intruder, which annoys the guy in charge. He begs my aid.

My oh my. Getting a little desperate, are we, Mr. Company President? Well, I guess I’ll just have to extinguish your little glimmer of hope. FIGHT TIME

She’s an admin who’s got a similar but whiter outfit. But all she has to offer is a L37 scraggy and L38. I just beat higher level evolved pokemon of the overpowered type, scraggy and houndoom does not exactly slow me down.

And my amaura is finally evolving into extra frilly saurapod! The game sure seems to have its own definition of when “night” starts. But whatever, I’ve got aurorus at last.

The diamond-shaped crystals on its body expel air as cold as -240 degrees Fahrenheit, surrounding its enemies and encasing them in ice.

You know, that just seems super cold and not impossibly super cold. Okay, super super cold, but it’s only halfway to absolute zero so compared to, say, alakazam having an IQ of you can’t even measure that with an IQ test, it’s pretty reasonable. I just checked around and that’s only about as cold as the coldest temperature on Neptune, with the farther out planets being even colder. There’s restraint here! The pokeverse of old would have tacked another two or three digits on there.

Back to overland view, the admin I just beat backs away. C-come on! You didn’t have to go all out for a pitiful president like him! Oh, right, he exists, doesn’t he.

Purplehead says, So lame! That’s just embarrassing from an admin! Still, no worries. We’re on it! This pair of scientists will clean up after you! Damn, so, someone will be along to “help” me in the double battle.

Let’s take her on two versus one, agrees Foresthead. Guys, stop gloating and get to it before someone else gets here! We must improve our chances of winning. GLOATING REDUCES THAT YOU IDIOTS STOP TALKING AND FIGHT ME

..too late.

I can’t let you do that, says guess who. Sorry to have kept you waiting!

Foresthead is surprised there’s more of us. Purplehead doesn’t care. When we’re the ones fighting together, our odds of victory increase exponentially! So they have some sort of paired team?

I think your math is off, says Calem, not knowing that pokemon can have beneficial combinations. And I thought you were supposed to be scientists! You’re an idiot. Are you ready to fight alongside me, neighbor?

Huh, saying no lets me talk to everyone. The scientist pair explain double battles do in fact have beneficial combinations. You’re a stupidhead, neighbor.

Well, let’s do this. L41 liepard and manectric. The liepard screws up his meowstic with a taunt. I learn that dazzling gleam hits both pokemon in a battle. Overpowered much? Huh, and so does disarming voice. Damn. Because liepard needed yet another way to be screwed over.

And so it’s over. They say that such is probability.

Oh my, oh my? Foresthead says.

So lame! What a shame! We got beat!

Flarehead spikyboxes Enough already! We’ve already stolen the Poke Balls, Great Balls, and Ultra Balls. Let’s call it good and leave. So…is this going to have any impact on the outside gameworld? Stores seem to currently stock infinite pokeballs of all varieties, and also I may have already bought more than a hundred premierballs so I wouldn’t notice anytime soon. If this happened early on in the game and then you couldn’t buy the others and had to make do with the remaining varieties, that’d have been really cool.

Anyway. President guy is super grateful. You’re astounding Pokemon Trainers for being so young. And he offers us a reward.

I’ll give you a Master Ball or a Big Nugget. Pick whichever one you’d like.

Seriously, game? Honestly, I’m tempted to go with the big nugget just to mess with things, but that’d be spiting myself to get at the game, so no.

And as a bonus, you can have the one you didn’t pick as well!

Dammit game, you could’ve just given me both and not taunted me with the knowledge my choices are meaningless.

He then says something about not knowing the proper way to use a big nugget. Uh, sell it? (Checking the bag just says to sell it.)

But then, apparently he doesn’t know much.

What were they planning to accomplish by taking all the Poke Balls for themselves… he wonders dumbly

Right then, Alt-me, you like to explain the plot, want to tell the dumb man?

So, they stole Poke Balls, right? They must be planning something they need lots of Pokemon for.

Huh. They seemed more focused in getting them so no one else would have them, but maybe that was just a fun side effect. Without the …AND NO ONE ELSE!!! bit, yeah, I’ve always thought enemy teams should go on catching sprees to boost their numbers, and that any sign they’re suddenly pulling in lots of pokemon should be like milita groups suddenly buying up lots of guns.

Of course when I tried to hint that, the readers all just ignored it in favor of RAR POKEMON POACHING IS WRONG ONLY CATCHING THEM IS RIGHT YAY. So canon maybe has my back here! Thanks, canon. It’s nice when you’re clever.

I heard that Team Flare was also behind the trouble at the Power Plant. Pokemon… And electricity… What are they after?

Voltorb armies?

No wait, voltorb armies actually makes sense! Voltorb are somehow created after pokeballs are. Maybe you can flat out make voltorb from pokeballs if you run electricity through them.

Okay, well, as the conquering hero, it’s time for Serena to see if there’s any other spoils to be found. To the hostages!

If all Poke Balls are stolen, there won’t be any Poke Balls to buy at Poke Marts! Just one might cost $1,000,000! As someone currently carrying a lot of them, that sounds good.

The last guy who begged for my help is gone, but I find him outside where he says that We’re hard at work making Poke Balls, but there still aren’t enough… Eh, there’s plenty in stores for the moment, aren’t there? Really, this sounds like it’d be a fun twist, but I just don’t think it’s happening.